St Marco

I was not referring to you mate. Was towards those who had a pop at you etc

So basically the clappers are now using the old 'you don't go to games' line whilst they themselves don't go either... got to love those guys logic. Or lack of it.

I remember that game last year. Palace were on fire and in the top 6 or something if I remember right. Can't really compare that to a lower league club who have lost 8 of their last 12 games. And before you say it Ipswich were not on a run like that.

Can only go off what they said on radio but seems quite a few had bad games notably jwp again. Defend like that against Liverpool and we will get destroyed.

Prowse sounds like he is having another mare

Because its about the pl and Fonte has not played any euro games? If you want to include Yoshi's EL games these are the stats. Yoshi EL - Tackles per game 0.7 - Clearances per game 6.2 - shots blocked per game 0.8 - passes blocked per game 0.2 - fouls per game 0.5 - unsuccessful touches per game 0.3 So less tackles overall but better blocking/clearing etc But like I said it is a bit unfair to include the EL stats when one of them didn't even feature in it. Plus we are no longer in it. And imo we play far superior teams in the PL than the ones we had in the EL.

Someone asked me to post the comparison between Yoshi, Fonte and VVD. Couldn't find the post to quote it. The thing with Yoshi is he has only played 450 mins this season. Which is 5 full 90 mins games. So to get a better idea of his stats I think it is fair to change the criteria to 'per 90 mins' for all three players. So based on that we have Yoshi - Tackles per game 1.4 - Clearances per game 4.8 - shots blocked per game 0.4 - passes blocked per game 0.2 - fouls per game 1.6 - unsuccessful touches per game 0.8 Fonte - Tackles per game 1.5 - Clearances per game 5.8 - shots blocked per game 0.6 - passes blocked per game 0.8 - fouls per game 1 - unsuccessful touches per game 0.5 VVD - Tacklers per game 2.1 - Clearances per game 6.8 - shots blocked per game 0.7 - passes blocked per game 0.5 - fouls per game 0.9 - unsuccessful touches per game 0.3

From Opta Fonte - 1.5 tackles per game - 2.1 interceptions a game - 5.8 clearances a game - 0.6 blocks per game - mins played 1539 VVD - 2.1 tackles per game - 2.6 interceptions a game - 6.8 clearances a game - 0.7 blocks per game - mins played 1709 They are very similar. VVD has obviously played more minutes. Either way if we are left with Yoshida and VVD I believe that to be weaker than Fonte and VVD.

Can't believe some of the comments on here. Fonte is the captain, he deserves that accolade. He has been massive for us for so long. He may have not lived up to his past performances this year thus far but he is still our second best CB without any shadow of a doubt. In regards to actual defensive stats he is nearly on par with vvd this year. None of us know the ins and outs of what is going on but how many times have we seen this from Reed? Lallana, Alderweild, Clyne and of course Koeman and Pochetino. The way the club have treated him this year regardless of money has been awful. No Europe games etc. As for the cup tied thing he was on the bench for some of the games so that isn't right... The whole Money thing doesn't seem true either. He declined a bigger contract and an extension. There is more to it than that imo. Of course the club should not bend over everytime someone wants something as that is recipe for disaster. But of all the people at the club deserving of anything it is Fonte. These kind of things seem to happen to us a fair bit and you have to ask yourself why. If you believe everything Les says than you are obviously going to be angry at the player. Me myself I don't believe what he says simply because a lot of what he has said has turned out to be complete bull****. As others have said he is the king of spin.

Too early to judge for me. One thing is for sure though we are now an ultra defensive team set up not to get beat. When we need a goal to chase a game we never change style. That is my main gripe. It is such boring football and so predictable. Unless we can sort out how to attack soon we will slip further down the table. It is one thing playing well and getting beat, it is something else when you play bad and still get beat.

Was that the Arsenal reserves game? The Burnley who have only got 1 away point all season? The West Ham who scored only 9 goals at home all season? And so on. Shows how far we have fallen if they are the games you have picked to show how good we are playing. By this time last season (I know you love saying that one) we had destroyed Arsenal away in the league, beat Chelsea away 1-3 and drew at Anfield etc... Hardly the same kind of results...

Exactly and its a point that will be lost on people. The key to us being where we were in the league was our defence. That has now fallen apart. Conceded 9 goals in 3 games. Prior to that we had let in only 16 for the entire season. Our attacking play has been poor all season. I have seen nothing from Puel and Black to suggest they can get us going on a winning run. I could be wrong but I think we have only won two PL games back to back once this season. 7 points from the last 21 on offer is very poor.

Pamplemouse and co are starting to sound really crazy now imo.

The sad thing is when Everton looked like they couldn't be arsed we were the better team. They go up a gear and start playing, where as we can't, we remain the same. Ah well at least we were 12th this time last season.

Maybe tempting fate but I think we are looking the better team. Everton are just lumping it forward. Romeu has been really good getting the ball forwards today imo.

I meant unlucky as in he did well to create the chance himself by getting passed the players etc. That was the hard part imo. The finish should have been better of course but I thought he did well until that point.

Disagree. It has come from Classie and Romeu. With Mcqueen and Stephens trying to get the ball to Redmond and Tadic. JWP has done very little of note imo. Except the card obviously.

Thought we were ok in the first half. Much better than the last two games anyway. Stephens and Classie doing well. Redmond should have done much better with his couple of chances though. Jay was unlucky with his chance, did really well until the finish. Prowse needs to calm down and not do anything stupid.

Great cross by Mcqueen.

If you were playing the jwp backwards/sideways pass drinking game you would probably be in hospital now tbh.

Great slam dunk by Jay there.

http://cricfree.sc/watch/live/everton-vs-southampton-live-streaming

Stephens did well there I thought.

Midfield is getting passed too easily right now.

I am still undecided. They were talking on ssn before the game about his tactics and the ability to change the games. Regardless of results you have to say we play one way and one way only. If that does not work he has no back-up plans. We had one shot on goal so you have to change what we are doing to create more. He didn't change anything. We still played the same way the entire game. There was no pace in attack, no Alamo siege going on. At times the only person forward was either Tadic or Boufal. Nobody else was up there to help in attack. Whoever had the ball had to keep hold of it and wait for players to come forward. Majority of the time the player would get crowded out and lose the ball. The problem with this is unless you are a big strong player it is hard to keep the ball for that long. For me I think the issue isn't so much Puel, it is Reed. His comments in the summer about Koeman going and how Puel is the perfect fit for us speak volumes. He said we will play the same 'Southampton' way and Puel was the best man for that. The problem is we are not playing the same. We have swapped fast fluid high pressing football, for slow defensive possession football. The type of football West Brom and co used to play. For me that is the main disappointment I have. If we play exciting stuff and lose than ok. If we play ultra defensive football and lose then it isn't ok. You have to say if it was not for VVD we would not be where we are in the league. We have struggled for most of the season and the defensive shut outs we had early on have all but gone. When the defensive side goes we are in trouble as we are set up to be a defensive side that relies on clean sheets and lack of shots on our goal. So for me I think it is more down to Reed than Puel. Saying we would play the same and then totally change how we play is not acceptable.